1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to methods and devices for facilitating real time management of an object system. More particularly, embodiments of the present invention relate to a data acquisition and telemetry control system for facilitating substantially real-time control of automated irrigation systems.
2. Prior State of the Art
It is generally acknowledged that the availability of water for agricultural applications is becoming an ever-increasing problem. The relative scarcity of water has obvious negative consequences. For example, because the water is relatively scarce, the price that is charged for the water that is available is relatively higher. This is in accord with basic economic principles. Furthermore, it is a natural consequence of higher water prices that the crops that are produced with that water will be more expensive, therefore increasing the end cost to consumers for those agricultural products.
A variety of factors affect the supply of water used in agricultural applications. Some factors, such as weather, are essentially uncontrollable. However, one of the most significant, controllable, factors affecting the supply of agricultural water is the general tendency of farmers to over-irrigate their crops. This problem is particularly acute where farmers irrigate with center pivot irrigation systems. Some experts have estimated that farmers using center pivots disperse up to thirty percent more water than is necessary to support the development of the crop.
As suggested earlier, over-irrigating has economic consequences in that it tends to reduce the overall water supply, and thus increase water costs. In addition to reducing the overall water supply however, over-irrigating may also damage crops. For example, some experts have noted that over-irrigating of potatoes tends to promote disease, and reduce potato size and quality. There are other problems associated with over-irrigating as well. In particular, farmers realize a significant outlay in costs associated with pumping the water to and onto the agricultural fields. Over-use of water naturally increases pumping costs to the farmer.
Clearly, over-irrigation has a variety of undesirable consequences, and yet the practice continues. There are a variety of reasons for this. One of the reasons for over-irrigation is that many farmers lack an economic incentive to do otherwise. For example, the state of Idaho has over one million acres served by center pivot irrigation systems. However, many farmers there own water shares and thus the water is relatively inexpensive. Accordingly, those farmers have little economic incentive to conserve water, and thus tend to use more water than they actually need.
Another reason for over-irrigation relates to the fact that the typical farmer's watering scheme is essentially empirical in nature. It is generally acknowledged that rates of water absorption and retention may vary widely throughout an agricultural field. However, the farmer is forced to take a worst case approach and over-irrigate rather than under-irrigate so as to ensure that those portions of the agricultural field that use water most quickly are adequately watered and retain adequate moisture to support crop development. Thus, because the farmer lacks any way to precisely determine the differing water requirements of the various portions of the agricultural field, and to disperse water accordingly, the farmer is forced to err on the side of over-irrigating rather than under-irrigating.
As suggested in the foregoing discussion, one of the major factors contributing to the scarcity of agricultural water is the tendency of farmers to over-irrigate their crops. The major reason for over-irrigating is that farmers have no reliable, contemporaneous, method or device to determine the moisture content throughout their fields. Farmers would be able to much more readily control their water consumption, and associated pumping costs, if they had a relatively inexpensive system and/or device which could determine moisture content throughout the entire agricultural field and then communicate that data to an irrigation control system. The benefits of such a system or device would include increased water availability, reduced water costs, and improved crop quality.
While systems exist wherein desired data is communicated or transmitted to some type of transmitter/receiver, those systems are inadequate to solve the problems identified herein. In particular, these systems typically involve transmission of data that has been embedded in a computer chip or the like. When a signal from the transmitter/receiver impinges upon the chip, the chip transmits the embedded, or pre-programmed, data back to the transmitter/receiver. However, these systems are inadequate to solve the problems discussed herein because they suffer from the significant limitation that they cannot acquire data, rather they simply transmit data that has already been pre-programmed.
Other known systems are capable of acquiring and then transmitting data. However, these systems have limitations as well. A typical system employs a plurality of sensors disposed in a particular environment so as to measure one or more parameters of interest with respect to the environment. Upon interrogation by a transmitter/receiver, the sensors acquire the desired data and transmit it to the transmitter/receiver. The major shortcoming of such systems is that the sensors typically require a power source such as a battery or the like, in order to acquire and then transmit data. Thus, such sensors are of limited utility where replacement of the power source is impossible or impracticable. Furthermore, power sources such as batteries are sensitive to temperature extremes and other environmental influences that may compromise their performance or render them ineffective. The problems associated with battery powered sensors and the like are further exacerbated in those situations where a plurality of sensors are deployed. Finally, these types of systems typically only gather and process data, they do not include substantially real-time system control functionality.
It will be appreciated that, due to changing environmental, soil, and crop conditions, the moisture content of an agricultural field may vary greatly with the passage of time and according to different locations in the field. Due to the inherently dynamic nature of the moisture content of a particular environment, any system or device for measuring moisture content and transmitting moisture content data must be able to do so continuously and reliably. Known systems lack the functionality to meet these performance requirements.
In view of the foregoing problems with known irrigation methods and devices, what is needed is a soil moisture sensor capable, upon demand, of measuring moisture content of an area of interest, and transmitting the acquired moisture content data to a data collection point. The soil moisture sensor should be able to process the collected moisture content data to generate a moisture map. Further, the soil moisture sensor should be able to continuously and contemporaneously update the moisture map. Additionally, the soil moisture sensor should be able to communicate the moisture map to an irrigation control system so as to facilitate substantially real-time irrigation system control. Finally, the soil moisture sensor should be relatively inexpensive and easy to maintain.